AMC Should Have Let Rubicon Live

Rubicon is, sadly, no more. AMC announced today that there will not be a second season of the moody thriller. In a statement, AMC said, "This was not an easy decision, but we are grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such a talented, dedicated team.” Fine, I'll take AMC's word for it that this wasn't an easy decision. But I also think it was very much the wrong decision.

Look, I've been back and forth on Rubicon as the first and, sadly, only season chugged along. The story of Will Travers (James Badge Dale), an intelligence agent who gets caught up in a terrorist conspiracy, got off to a slow start. Really slow. I enjoyed the first couple of episodes, then found myself waiting—a lot. The thrill of watching Katherine Rhumor (Miranda Richardson) aimlessly wander around a townhouse lasts only so long. But over time I became enthralled. To tell you the truth, the only reason I even watched the later episodes was that AMC kept sending me the screeners. Finally, I got tired of looking at the pile on my coffee table and delved through some later episodes in an effort to give Rubicon one last shot. What I found was a show that rewarded its viewers for sticking with the series through the (sometimes painfully) slow buildup. But the slow buildup was necessary! I recently wrote that Rubicon was the best show on television that no one was watching, but here is the thing: they were watching, at one point. Until The Walking Dead came along, Rubicon scored the best rating for a premiere in the network's history. And they would have watched again.

Over its last few episodes, Rubicon did an excellent job of trimming the fat in preparation for a second season. Its writers finally found a way to incorporate Katherine into the plot and then, thankfully, kill her off. They turned Kale Ingram (Arliss Howard) into one of the most complex and interesting characters on television today. Truxton Spangler (Michael Cristofer) was a delight to watch on-screen week after week. The man could order a hit on an employee—as he did with Will Travers—and then, before the hit, thank that same employee for all of his hard work. And you believed he really meant it! Truxton wasn't evil. It was all business—in the service of what he thought was the greater good.

In the last (ever) episode, Will (who survived the hit on his life) confronts Spangler about his role in destroying a tanker that temporarily cut off the oil supply to the United States. In an interview that I did with Michael Cristofer (who played Spangler), he explained that a few variations on that final scene were filmed. In a version that didn't air, Spangler tells Will that the reason for the attack was to wean the U.S. off of its dependency on oil. It's never going to happen now, but Cristofer explained that the second season would focus on the moral tension between Spangler’s noble goals and his vile tactics. That sounded good to me.

AMC, which now has a stellar history of original programming, pulled the plug too soon on Rubicon. If I'm not mistaken, most of the people who watch Mad Men weren't watching from the beginning. Viewers caught up through iTunes or DVD. This would have happened with Rubicon, too. I know AMC is looking at the decline in viewership as the season went along, but those numbers can be misleading. The initial ratings came from people expecting non-stop action, based on the promo featuring a horrific train crash. Those people—the ones who stopped watching when they decided there weren’t enough explosions—should be

ignored, Rubicon would have built its own audience, based on the quality of the second half of the season. It had finally found its groove.

Oh, well. Rubicon has received its own four-leaf clover, making this the last time I'll ever get a chance to write about a show that I grew to love. Kale Ingram, we hardly knew you, but we thank you for all your hard work.